Clues to Snape's Loyalties

[Zara]

No: HPFGUIDX 170867

> vmonte:
> The interesting thing about double
> agents is that you never really know whose side they are truly on;
> or even more importantly if they are on any one side at all,
> preferring to use what they can from both sides until ultimately
> both sides cancel each other out leaving the double-double-crosser
> as the true victor.

zgirnius:
The people managing said agent can make educated guesses, of course. 
We know somewhat less than Dumbledore and Voldemort in this case, 
making it even harder for us to tell, hence the debate. The 
difficulty of determining the loyalites of a double agent, if any, 
does not mean that individual double agents do not have them.

> vmonte:
> Throughout the novel Snape is repeatedly described as having bat-
> like and spider-like qualities. 

zgirnius:
Ah, the beauties of symbolism as a tool for literearty analysis...

> vmonte:
> Bats are bloodsuckers, 

zgirnius:
Actually, the majority of bat species are not bloodsuckers, they eat 
fruits and insects (like mosquitos, thus making bats beneficial to 
humans in many cases).

> vmonte:
> and arachnids spin webs to entrap their prey, once caught they are 
> sucked dry of their innards until only a husk remains. 

zgirnius:
As a meat-eater myself, I don't find I can object to this activity of 
spiders. At least they don't then wear the remaining husk. <g> 

The thing about bat and spider imagery is that, while they do have 
the association you name with darkness and evil, they are also rather 
classic examples of misunderstood creatures (the claim that bats are 
blooksuckers, for example). Which makes them a brilliant choice for 
Snape - we see the images, but we cannot be sure which way we should 
take them. Does Rowling use them because Snape is evil, or because 
Snape's forbidding exterior makes people around him think he is, 
while he actually serves a beneficial function? The answer (for the 
next three weeks or so) is in the eye of the beholder.

> vmonte:
> Fooling Dumbledore could have been as easy as tugging on his
> heartstrings – The Dark Lord, however, is another matter.

zgirnius:
Young Tom Riddle did not manage, and he seems to have been far more 
personable and charismatic than Snape is.

> vmonte:
> During this conversation with Harry, it seems obvious that Snape is
> talking about himself. Never one to pass up an opportunity to "toot
> his own horn" Snape implies that he has the power to lie to the face
> of the Dark Lord. 

zgirnius:
I did rather take it this way. It seems to me that the only way he 
would know this is if he has actually done so - if he lied to 
Voldemort and got away with it.

> vmonte:
> It is at this point that Snape has been forced off his fence, where
> he has been happy to sit and watch the world move around him.
> Snape's hand twitches and he pauses. His hesitancy shows he
> understands that he may regret this decision. But he was backed into
> a corner. Showing his intentions to be anything other than for the
> Dark Lord and the protection of his own, especially in front of
> Bellatrix would certainly have meant his death. 

zgirnius:
If your last statement is true, then DDM!Snape could act no 
differently. Whatever his loyalties, it implies his taking of the Vow 
delayed his death. 

> vmonte:
> To intentionally kill someone causes so much damage to your soul
> that it tears apart. It would not be in Dumbledore's character to
> ask this of Snape. 

zgirnius:
No, it is not intentional killing that does this, it is murder. 
Whether Snape's action, done at Dumbledore's specific request, is a 
murder is not at all clear. We may have our different opinions about 
it. What matters is what this all means in the Potterverse, something 
that has not been made explicit to date. 

> vmonte:
> Dumbledore's been trying to keep Snape away from
> the Defense Against the Dark Arts position for years because of his
> fear that it would tempt Snape back to the dark side. 

zgirnius:
There is the small matter of the curse on that teaching position, 
which might be the explanation as well.
 
> vmonte:
> The sound of his hero and protector pleading is even more
> frightening to Harry than facing an army of bewitched corpse-
> puppets. None of this moves Snape in the slightest. 

zgirnius:
But it does. Snape shows emotion on the Tower, in the very scene you 
quote. Even more so later, when he is compared to the dog trapped in 
the burning house. 

> vmonte:
> J. K. Rowling has said in an interview that Snape in a way is even
> more culpable for his actions than Voldemort because Snape was
> loved. She has also eluded in an interview that Snape may redeem
> himself in book 7. How can a man who is both culpable and possibly
> redeemable be innocent? 

zgirnius:
The DDM! position is not that he is innocent, but that he is innocent 
of the murder of Dumbledore, and of working for his own or 
Voldemort's nefarious ends during the time of Harry's attendance at 
Hogwarts. He is surely guilty of having been a Death Eater, and 
ofwhatever crimes he committed as one, including the bringing of the 
prophecy to Voldemort.  

> vmonte:
> Harry Potter is a Horcrux and Snape is evil.

zgirnius:
I give the first statement even odds. The second I find unlikely. <g>